2021/10/08     Dresden, Germany

Image: Thomas Pluntke/City of Dresden

The Scientific Advisory Board of Dresden’s climate concept convenes 29 September. UNU-FLORES Director Prof. Edeltraud Guenther contributes to the inaugural in-person discussions as a board member.

By Louisa Andrews

September 29 marks the first in-person gathering of the Wissenschaftlicher Beirat – or Scientific Advisory Board – of the City of Dresden’s Integrated Energy and Climate Protection Concept. This Concept, for which the Dresden City Council presented a fortified and renewed update in January 2020, highlights climate protection as an urban priority of the highest order – for which all communities are responsible.

With her decades of expertise in environmental accounting, UNU-FLORES Director, Prof. Edeltraud Guenther serves on the Advisory Board. Having studied the challenges of climate protection from a business research perspective, as well as leveraging her position as the head of a UN think tank, Prof. Guenther works at the intersection of science and policy – and is delighted to have the opportunity to advise the city of both her duty station and home on this crucial topic.

The Advisory Board was established to support the city’s commitment to achieving climate neutrality and the conscientious decreasing of carbon emissions from an academic perspective. It brings together experts whose knowledge spans a multitude of research fields and industries, including social science, climate protection, energy, transport, and economics.

“It is so heartening to see the commitment of the City of Dresden to climate protection –
and to align their important mission with the work of UNU-FLORES. I look forward to
identifying further synergies with the decision makers of Dresden”.
– Prof. Edeltraud Guenther

Climate protection and sustainable practices are at the forefront of UNU-FLORES’s research agenda and feature heavily throughout the Institute’s strategic plan, which aims to create a lasting impact through both activities and operational adjustments. The Institute achieved climate neutrality for the first time in 2019 and adopted sustainable procurement policies throughout the office.

Indeed, UNU-FLORES has asserted itself as a pioneering sustainable United Nations agency. The Institute’s Sustainability Coordinator is currently working alongside other UN branches to develop an organisational sustainability strategy, along with Prof. Guenther, in her capacity as the United Nations University representative at the UN Environmental Management Group.